In the past three years, Pope Francis has met with, as well as praised, numerous pro-abortion politicians and leaders, as well as couples in irregular unions, much to the concern of Catholic pro-life leaders.
In June 2013, the pope received Uruguay’s President José Mujica at the Vatican Library for a record 45-minute private audience. Mujica legalized abortion, homosexual unions and decriminalized marijuana. According to Vatican spokesman Lombardi, Francis affirmed that he was “very pleased for having met with a wise man.” Uruguay’s president said speaking with Francis was “like talking to a neighbourhood friend.”
More recently, in early 2016, Pope Francis sent a rosary to an indigenous leader from Argentina named Milagro Sala, detained “on charges of fraud, extortion and illicit association”. The Pope’s gesture seemed to support the campaign of the pro-abortion Argentinian group “Católicas por el derecho a decidir [Catholic women for the right to decide]”, who took up the defense of Sala.
Sala is an abortionist and defender of gender ideology. Sala does not declare herself to be Catholic as Christ taught, but rather “in my own way”, she wrote on Facebook, from prison. She added that she “believes in the traditions of our grandparents. We always performed ceremonies…we invite the chamanes [witch doctors] …in the Temple of Kasasaya, in Tiwanaku, which we constructed in the neighborhood.” Sala doesn’t stop there: “When visiting Pope Francis for the first time, I told him that I was sick of the Church…for all the evil that the Church has done…ever since the conquest…constructing temples over our sacred temples, as in Cuzco.”
The organization founded by Sala, called “Tupac Amaru”, organizes, among other activities, the “Woman’s van”. Besides offering reproductive “counseling”, it also installs abortive devices free of charge among the underprivileged population.
Sala’s organization likewise defends “Sexual diversity”. Consequently, it organized a “National Encounter of Lesbian, Gay, Transvestites, Transsexual, Transgender, Bisexual, Intersex and Queer” in the neighborhood, promoting parades, simply impossible for a Catholic priest to describe. Along with this show of impudence, Sala declared: “we are very happy”, with the 20 vehicles carrying people demonstrating their immorality, adding that “there is nothing and no one that can make us bow our heads.”
More recently, at his February 15 Meeting with Families in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, in southern Mexico, the Pope made heads turn when he met with and praised the divorced and remarried couple of Humberto Gómez Espinoza and Claudia Castellón Leal. The two were never married in Church, but have been married civilly for 16 years.
Gómez Espinoza explained that while he had never been married, his wife had married in the Church and had several children by her previous marriage. “Our relationship has been one of love and understanding, but we were alienated from the Church,” he told the pope. Recognizing that as “divorced and remarried we can’t receive the Eucharist, but we can receive communion through our brothers in need, our sick brothers, those who are deprived of freedom, and for that reason we are volunteers.”
Gómez Espinoza claimed that “we are blessed because we have a marriage and a family where the center is God,” and Pope Francis seemed to agree. “You pray and you are with Jesus. You are so integrated into the life of the Church.” He approached the couple and gave them a long hug, as sentimental music played in the background.
It will be helpful to recall at this point the teachings of Jesus Christ himself on divorce and remarriage. To those who tried to justify their second, third, or fourth union…the Master responded reminding them that “what God has joined together, no human being must separate” (Mk 10:9; cf Mt 5:31; 19:7; Lk 16:18), while explaining that “whoever divorces his wife causes her to commit adultery” (Mt 5:32) and “whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery” (Mt 19:9).
There is no such thing as second or third “unions” for a man or woman. Jesus, Word of God made Man, qualified these second and third unions as “adultery”.